Main menu

Channel your inner wheelman with a variety of rides in Driver: San Francisco

September 8, 2011

1 of 7The Challenger R/T is the hero car for most of the game

Photo by Ubisoft

2 of 7No Porsche because Electronic Arts owns the license, but German tuner RUF doesn't suffer the same fate

Photo by Ubisoft

3 of 7Seems them Duke boys got themselves into another jam

Photo by Ubisoft

4 of 7Baja racing by the bay

Photo by Ubisoft

5 of 7Unfortunately 88 mph won't send you back in time

Photo by Ubisoft

6 of 7Cops and robbers

Photo by Ubisoft

7 of 7Recreating the Bullitt chase through the streets of San Fran

Photo by Ubisoft

Full list of <i>Driver: San Francisco vehicles:

When we last left John Tanner in Driv3r, the third installment of the game, he had just put world-class bad guy Charles Jericho into the hands of police.

The new game, Driver: San Francisco, released on Sept. 6, starts with Tanner and partner Tobias Jones in the City by the Bay, overseeing Jericho's route to the penitentiary. As the men wait in Tanner's 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T (440 Six Pack, of course) Jericho breaks out of the police transport and escapes, but not before our hero is put into a coma via a semitruck accident.

In the coma is where most of the game takes place. In Tanner's dream state he can float over the city, jumping into anybody and any car he deems fit. It's a cool spin on a genre of sandbox games that are getting more tired as the years go by. Each civilian has his or her own little piece of the story, which you'll hear when you jump in the driver's seat.

All of that is good. But the real stars of this game are the cars. An accurate representation of San Francisco is filled with sedans, pickups, work trucks, buses and sports cars just like a real city. And, in a first for the series, licensed cars from real manufacturers are used.

Expect to see a bunch of Dodge Chargers and Ford Taurus sedans, small Fiats, Pontiacs and Chevrolet Camaros in traffic accidents, parked at coffee shops and generally hindering your speedy driving. In total there are 140 cars in the game (see the full list below), ranging from the 1960s to the present, all of which can be purchased at garages throughout the city.

Game maker Ubisoft didn't skimp on the car selection either. Driver: San Francisco has one of the most eclectic vehicle groups you'll see in a nonracing game. The pony cars are all present, in both modern and classic interpretations. Along with them are the exotic Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Alfa Romeos. The Chevy Corvette is a good buy, though it's a bit weak structurally for police work.

As for the other classics, there are Cadillac Eldorados, Chevy Bel Airs, Dodge Charger RTs and even Jaguar E-types. The really impressive part is that they aren't all the cars you think of when putting together a driving game. In the first batch of missions you drive a 1965 Alfa Giulia TZ2, chase a Lamborghini Countach, have the option to buy an AMC Pacer and go rallying with a Lancia Stratos and a Ford RS200.

The game map is filled with of driving events ranging from races to chases, top-speed runs to movies stunts and everything in between. One particular event has our hero competing to win both first and second place in a race. That can be done either with speed, switching from car to car, or the most fun way, taking control of oncoming traffic and smashing head on into your competition.

Driver: San Francisco comes with a two-player component where you can race and chase your friends with a split screen. It also works online, where up to eight players can compete simultaneously. We didn't get much of a chance to test that yet but if the one-player mode is any indication, it should work well, if not a bit chaotically.

Driver differs from Grand Theft Auto in that it really is all about the cars. Unlike previous Driver games there is no running around outside the car, just loads of tire-smoking, metal-crunching action. If the rest of the game is anything like the four chapters we've completed so far, it should be a lot of fun.